


Now We Have Everything

by opalmatrix



Category: Fiddler on the Roof - Bock/Harnick/Stein
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, Gen, Immigration & Emigration, Sisters, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-13
Updated: 2014-03-13
Packaged: 2018-01-15 13:18:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1306252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opalmatrix/pseuds/opalmatrix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bielke has good news, but Tzeitel's is even better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Now We Have Everything

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ryfkah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ryfkah/gifts).



> Beta by **[smillaraaq](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Smillaraaq/)**.

The Shabbat day was hot, and the road was dusty. Beulah was far ahead of her sisters, crisp and fresh-looking in her striped organdy dress and fashionable straw hat decorated with roses. Sarah's hat was more practical than modish, and Hodel still wore a kerchief. "I thought Shabbat was a day of rest?" said Sarah, her eyes on the dry, gritty pavement just ahead of her.

Hodel smiled. "This is America, the land of new ideas, right?" But she stopped and looked back the way they had come, her face tight and anxious. 

Sarah waited for her for a moment. Then: "Come on, Hodel, Beulah's almost out of sight. Perchik will be fine. He likes to tell Joe how to play chess — his chess champ nephew, and he thinks he's teaching him! And Marty is there, and Mama and Papa."

Hodel gave her a tired smile. "Land of the free, but he's still in Siberia. I hear you, but I just don't have as much energy as our Beulah. A nurse: she walks all day, but she still has such a case of shpilkes on Shabbat. Sarah … ?"

"What?"

"Should I change my name?"

Ahead of them, Beulah was at the corner of the road that turned toward the river. She waved her rosy hat, swinging the picnic basket that dangled from her other hand. Sarah wished she had something to drink. "Do you want to change it?"

"I think I should. Your Rabbi said that Hodel is from Hadassah. But that's not a very American name. I could use Esther, but I don't think I'd ever get used to it."

"Huh. What goes with Hodel? Hilda? Helen?" And then, in English: "All right, Beulah! We're coming! It's too hot for hurrying!"

"Not up here! Come on!' Beulah had reached the top of the ridge. The other two trudged up the steep road and were met with a heavenly breeze off the river below them. Together, the three sisters walked along the edge of the grounds of the great house called Glenview.

"Wouldn't you like to live there?" asked Sarah, dreamily. "Every one of my kidlings could have his or her own room, and we'd still have enough for all the rest of you!"

"Too much to clean," said Hodel. "Should we stop here? Look at all the boats on the river!"

Beulah had already started to lay out the old tablecloth on the grass. "Here is good. Isn't this fine? Now the sun feels lovely, doesn't it? Come on, sit, I want to tell you my news!"

"You're not the only one with news, Nurse Beulah. I want a drink. What's in that basket?"

Beulah pulled out a stoppered bottle. "Seltzer water — still cold! And lemonade. And strawberries, cookies from Goldman's, and some cheese. How's that?"

The sisters sat and ate and watched the boats. Seagulls, venturing upriver from the harbor in New York City, mewed and whined overhead. Beulah was restless, kicking her feet, rearranging her hat, until Sarah finally took pity on her. "So what's this news? You're going to explode like a load of dynamite!"

"Jule has asked me to marry him!"

"What, that pharmacist boyfriend of yours has finally made up his mind? I thought you would both die of old age before he said a word!"

"He did, he asked!"

"And you said yes, of course," said Hodel. "Will you stop working at the hospital?"

"Only if we have little ones," said Beulah. "He knows how much I care about my patients."

"When will you tell Mama and Papa?"

"As soon as we go back. I just wanted to tell you first!"

"Mazel tov," said Sarah, and hugged her. 

Hodel smiled, her worries forgotten for the moment. "What about you, Sarah? It will have to be something really big to beat that one."

"Oh, I think it's pretty big!" Sarah pulled out an envelope, battered and covered with layers of foreign stamps and postmarks, and extracted a letter. The handwriting was strange and yet also strangely familiar. Hodel and Beulah stared at it.

"Is that … ?" said Hodel, and then stopped.

"Yes, it's from Chava! Beulah, Hodel: she's coming! Our sister is coming here, to America! She should be here by the High Holy Days in the fall!"

Beulah leapt to her feet and waved her hands in the air, like a schoolboy cheering his pal's catch on the ball field. "Yes!"

Hodel had tears on her cheeks and her hands clutched over her heart. "Oh Sarah! You were right. The biggest news there could be."

Sarah hugged her tight, the precious letter between them. She closed her eyes, felt the summer sun and Hodel's real, breathing presence, and thought: now, at last, we'll all be together again, with the will of God, praised be His Holy Name.

* * *

_Image from[The Bowery Boys: New York City History (blog)](http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2011/02/very-stylish-girl-fashion-week-2011.html)._  


End file.
